New Celtic signing Josip Juranovic has given his thoughts on how he will treat the Glasgow derby – claiming he will take no prisoners on the field; not even Croatia team-mate Borna Barisic.
Juranovic spoke ahead of this weekend’s crunch clash at the top of the Scottish Premiership, with the winners gaining a march on their counterparts at Ibrox.
With Celtic in high spirits following their superb win on aggregate over Alkmaar – in which Juranovic wasn’t registered in time – the Croatian claims he is raring and ready to go despite being thrown in the deep end.
Ahead of the game, Juranovic told The Scotsman:
On the field, I do not have friends. I’m sure he thinks the same thing.
In the Croatia squad when all of us are together, we are like a family. But, when you are not in the national team, we are not family.
I’m looking forward to it very much because I am here to play and not to have my holidays. I have been waiting for this moment to play in one of the matches and the most important thing is to win.
Juranovic is no stranger to derby matches; having played in the Polish and Croatian leagues – notoriously feisty in the big clashes – he will relish his chance at featuring in one of the biggest derbies in the world.
I had it in Croatia with Dinamo against Hajduk Split and also in Poland with Legia, where I had big derbies against teams like Lech Poznan.
I really like these games because every bit of it is tough and you have to be concentrated every second of the game to make sure you do not make any mistakes.
However, the right-back won’t be able to listen to Celtic fans, after the bizarrely weren’t allowed into Ibrox following coronavirus rules.
I am also sorry about that because I wanted to feel that atmosphere of the game.
But when I come back to Celtic after the international break, I will play in front of our supporters and I will hear everything.